1.[Field of the Invention]
The present invention relates to an electrical connector for a multi-conductor flat cable and a termination method thereto.
2.[Description of the Prior Art]
Recently, electronic equipment has become more and more compact than ever before. For this reason, it is desired to mount the parts more densely, and there has been a demand for an electrical connector having terminals arranged more densely for use in compact electronic equipment. There is also a growing demand for a multi-conductor flat cable having a number of conductors arranged densely in a plane for such a small connector. In order to meet such a demand, a multi-conductor flat cable having conductors arranged at a pitch of 0.635 mm (in contrast to the conventional 1.27-mm pitch) has been developed. Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 56-37667 and 57-53629 have proposed a insulation piercing, multi-conductor flat cable connector suitable for the 0.635-mm pitch multi-conductor flat cable. If the respective numbers of conductors and terminals stay the same, the size of the above connector would be one-half the size of the conventional one because the conductor arranging pitch of the cable (0.635 mm) is one-half that of the conventional one (1.27 mm) so that the arrangement pitch of terminals can be made one-half the conventional pitch.
However, the above miniature connector has the following shortcomings:
(1) This electrical connector requires very high process precision. Otherwise, the adjustment between the conductors and the terminals becomes very difficult, thus increasing the final manufacturing cost.
(2) The terminals of this connector must be made smaller and more complicated in shape than before, making their manufacture difficult and thus their manufacturing cost higher.
In order to solve such problems, we have proposed in Japanese Patent Kokai No. 60-167,285 an electrical conenctor to which a plurality of layers of conductors can be pressure welded for dense mounting. However, the multi-conductor flat cable used in the above connector has a pitch of 1.27 mm so that it failed to meet a demand for a smaller and denser electrical connector that is useful for a 0.635-mm pitch multi-conductor flat cable, and reliable, inexpensive, and suitable for volume production.